Written In The Stars
by Shutterbug5269
Summary: A series of vignettes featuring Caskett in various scifi/fantasy universes. For the Castle Summer 2018 ficathon
1. Narrow Escape (Star Wars universe)

**Narrow Escape  
(Star Wars Universe)**

* * *

 _"This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. I regret to report that both our Jedi Order and the Republic have fallen, with the dark shadow of the Empire rising to take their place. This message is a warning and a reminder for any surviving Jedi: trust in the Force. Do not return to the Temple. That time has passed, and our future is uncertain. Avoid Coruscant. Avoid detection. Be secret... but be strong. We will each be challenged: our trust, our faith, our friendships. But we must persevere and, in time, I believe a new hope will emerge. May the Force be with you, always."_

Obi-Wan Kenobi's warning: Star Wars Rebels

* * *

It had been a running gunfight all the way from the administrative level of the spaceport orbiting Ord Mantel.

Blaster fire spattered all around them as Ryan and Esposito half-carried Beckett while they fled back across the spaceport with Stormtroopers hot on their heels. She had taken a stun bolt from a blaster meant for Alexis, and Castle could almost feel his daughter fretting as she fussed over Kate, who had also taken a blow to the head when she'd fallen. Every groan Kate made caused Alexis to flinch as she applied the medpacks on the run.

They rounded the corner to the landing bay where Mandalore's Glory was waiting for them, to be met by two full squads of Stormtroopers flanking a humanoid figure dressed in grey and black. Castle had heard tell of these _"Inquisitors"_ recruited from the younger, more impressionable survivors of the Jedi purge by Lord Darth Vader himself to do Emperor Palpatine's bidding.

"Listen to me, all of you," the Inquisitor offered smoothly, "all I want is the girl. Give her to me and we will let the rest of you go."

"That's not gonna happen," Esposito shouted. He'd served during the clone wars. Turning young girls over to some dictatorial Emperor was not the cause he'd bled for.

"Your captain is wounded," the Inquisitor stated calmly. "My troops and I stand between you and your only means of escape from this system. You are hardly in the best bargaining position."

"He's right, Espo," Ryan muttered, looking defeated, "I hate it, but that jackhole has us cold."

Castle closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.

"Take Kate and Alexis, circle around to the other walkway and get to the ship," Castle stated as he opened his eyes, an almost inhuman calm descending over him. "I'll deal with our new friends."

"With what?" Esposito huffed, gripping his blaster carbine tightly. "Harsh language?"

"Leave that to me," Castle replied as he began removing components from his belt and pockets, his hands assembling a cylindrical device almost of their own accord. "A force-sensitive teenage girl is about to become the least of their problems."

"Castle, you're a damn fool," Esposito spat back.

"Who is more foolish?" Castle replied. "The fool, or the fool who argues with him?"

Before anyone could reply, Castle strode out across the walkway mimicking his usual swagger.

"Excuse me, sir," Castle stated clearly but calmly, "I believe we have not been properly introduced."

"Oh?" the Inquisitor replied, mildly perplexed.

"This is the part of the conversation," Castle offered, "where I ask what your intentions are with my daughter and then scare the crap out of you."

With barely a twitch of his left index finger, the troopers blocking his path on the walkway were swept over the side to fall screaming into the clouds below. The Inquisitor was about to learn the truth about his past. A truth he'd kept from nearly everyone, even his daughter. Only Kate knew, and she'd found out by chance.

Before the dark times, before the Empire, he had once been Ri-Quan Castillion, Master of the Jedi Order.

The Inquisitor did a very convincing job of looking unimpressed at such a vulgar display of force mastery, but Castle could clearly read the indecision coming off of him through the force.

" _Fear,"_ Castle noted to himself, remembering Yoda's teachings from his childhood long ago. _"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger then to hate, then to suffering."_

"You might be competent to hunt down half-trained padawans and force-sensitive children," Rick noted casually, using the same calm but authoritative tone he had once employed with the older students he'd trained at the temple, "but you may be a little out of your depth. Perhaps you should run along and call for Lord Vader."

"Open fire!" The inquisitor barked, in a high pitched squeak. "Enforce General Order Sixty-Six."

Almost the same instant the inquisitor barked his order, Castle twitched his left index finger again and the remaining Stormtroopers were flung over the side of the landing pad as he ignited his lightsaber, saluted smartly with the humming yellow blade and brought it to guard position.

The white armored soldiers so closely resembled the clone troopers his wife had led into battle who had summarily cut her down in a hail of blaster fire in that dark time he could almost taste it. He could feel the dark side tugging at him… whispering into his soul.

 _The Jedi betrayed you._

 _They didn't believe you._

 _They cast you out of the council._

 _Give in to your anger…_

 _Your hate can make you powerful_

Castle shunted those feelings aside as the black and gray clad Imperial agent ignited the dual blades of his own weapon and activated the mechanism that set them spinning.

Castle had expected the move and allowed the Inquisitor to press him back toward the walkway. He could sense Alexis and the others slipping around behind the Imperial toward the Glory's main ramp. He only had to keep the agent occupied for a few moments.

" _The boy isn't too bad."_ He thought to himself as he blocked or smoothly evaded the Inquisitor's spinning blades, _"over-dependent on his toy, perhaps but otherwise reasonably skilled. Whoever trained him was no Master Yoda, but was at least competently versed in lightsaber combat."_

He couldn't quite place the style the boy was using, however. He'd sparred with Master Windu enough to recognize and defend against the Sith style of Djem So. The boy was aggressive, yes, but this clearly wasn't it. He was making small, but critical errors that few would take note of, but someone who had trained young apprentices in lightsaber combat for nearly a decade.

"Wrong," Castle stated evenly as he deftly evaded the Inquisitors initial attack, "Footwork."

He could feel the anger roiling off of the Imperial as he came on again, more aggressively than before.

"Wrong," Castle scolded again as he effortlessly deflected one blade then slipped around the other. "Lack of follow-through."

He continued the string of calm, even toned training rebukes of the boy's stance and technique as he fell back along the walkway.

"You can't win, Jedi," the inquisitor growled angrily, "eventually, I will cut you down, and then the girl will be mine."

Castle knew the the Imperial agent had a point, even in his self-deluded bluster. It was only a matter of time before more troopers showed up. If it was going to happen, it needed to happen soon. But the Imperial agent didn't need to know he knew that.

"You're going to have to do better than this, _youngling_ ," Castle chastised, "over-reliance on your fancy, tricked-out toy won't make up for sub-par technique."

Before the Inquisitor could reply, Castle heard the distinctive whine of the Glory's main engines firing up and almost instantly changed tactics.

His stance shifted and his expression hardened as he switched styles to Master Windu's modified Djem So and moved from defense to attack.

His first strike severed the mechanism that made the Inquisitor's blades spin.

"Lesson the first," Castle spat darkly, "fancy, over-engineered toys are no replacement for skill."

His second strike cut low through the boys meager defense and the lower blade of his weapon sputtered out.

"Lesson the second," Castle hissed, as the Inquisitor continued to fall back, stunned at the sudden turn of events, "overconfidence is a weakness."

His third strike cut away the boy's blade, and the hand holding it and Castle kicked him to his knees.

"Lesson the third," he hissed, "Never mess with papa bear."

With a single downward stroke of his blade, he severed the Inquisitor's head from his neck and kicked what was left of his fancy weapon over the side as he strode toward Mandalore's Glory's ramp.

"Thus endeth the lesson."

Revenge was not the Jedi way, but Castle had long ago turned his back on the order. Not because the order had given up on him, but because ever since she'd been born, Alexis had been all that mattered. The Clone War had taken everything else.

* * *

The boarding ramp and pressure-door hissed closed behind him as Castle stepped into the main cabin of Madalore's Glory, a modified passenger variant of the Corellian YT-1300 light stock frieghter. Both Ryan and Esposito were stunned by the revelation of his Jedi skills. Esposito had witnessed firsthand what an Inquisitor was capable of.

"I'm actually surprised you waited for me," Castle muttered.

"We thought about it," Esposito shot back, while Ryan was busy tending to Kate's injuries. "But the _acting_ captain locked herself in the cockpit and refused to let us leave without you."

Before Castle could come up with a suitable retort, the door to the Glory's cockpit opened to reveal Alexis Castle. Her arms slowly crossed over her chest and a single ginger eyebrow arched.

Apparently, Richard Castle had some explaining to do.

* * *

 _ **Author's note: This is the first installment of a series of vignettes featuring Caskett in various scifi/fantasy universes. Next up will be a Star Trek vignette based upon the opening scene of Wrath of Khan.**_


	2. Kobayashi Maru (Star Trek Universe)

**Kobayashi Maru  
(Star Trek universe)**

* * *

 _Saavik: Then you never faced that situation? Faced death?  
Kirk: I don't believe in the no-win scenario.  
_Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

* * *

"Captain's Log, stardate: 94748.16, Captain Kate Beckett recording. USS New York on patrol mission to Gamma Hydra near the Romulan Neutral Zone. Approaching the treaty boundary, all systems normal and functioning."

"Leaving section fourteen for section fifteen," Ryan stated from the helm.

"Stand by," Kate replied, "tactical plot on viewer, project parabolic course to avoid entering the Neutral Zone."

"Aye, Captain," Esposito replied from ops, a few taps on his console replacing the star-field ahead of the ship with the star map showing their projected course. "Course projected."

Before Kate could offer any further comment, the communications station at the tactical console beeped for attention, followed swiftly by Lt. JG Castle.

"Captain," Castle reported, "I'm getting something on the distress channel."

"Put it on speakers," Kate replied a little more sharply than was likely necessary. She was still a little annoyed with him after he'd practicqally disappeared over the weekend.

Castle's fingers moved swiftly over the tactical console to comply.

"Imperative," an increasingly static laden voice implored over the audio-only channel. "This is Kobayashi Maru, nineteen periods out of Altair six. We have struck... gravitic mine... lost all power... losing structural integrity... multiple casualties!"

"This is the Federation Starship New York," Castle reported over the ship's comm, doing his best to boost the gain on their signal. "Your message is breaking up. Can you give us your coordinates? Repeat, this is the Starship…"

"New York," the captain of the Kobayashi Maru interrupted, "our position is near Gamma Hydra, section ten."

"In the neutral zone," Kate breathed, her mind intent on a tragedy that had taken place over a decade before. A dark period of her life that she had thought long buried along with her mother's empty coffin.

"Hull penetrated," the voice on the comms insisted. "Life support systems failing. Can you assist us, New York?"

"Data on Kobayashi Maru?" Kate asked shakily, the waver in her voice barely perceptible... except to Castle at tactical.

"Kobayashi Maru is a third class neutronic fuel carrier," Castle noted, barely needing to look at the interface on his console. "Crew of eighty-one. Her manifest records that she's also carrying three hundred passengers."

"Damn," Kate cursed under her breath, then turned back to the screen ahead. "Mr. Ryan, plot intercept course. All hands go to yellow alert."

"May I remind the Captain," Castle noted from his station, "that if a Federation Starship enters the Neutral zone…"

"I'm aware of my responsibilities, Mister," Kate shot back at him testily.

"Estimating two minutes to intercept." Esposito stated from the ops station.

"Now entering the Neutral Zone." Ryan noted.

"We are now in violation of the Treaty of Algeron, Captain," Castle noted, but Kate paid him little heed.

"Stand by transporter room," she commanded, "prepare to beam survivors aboard."

"Captain! I've lost their signal!" Castle exclaimed. "Three D'deridex-class warbirds decloaking. Bearing three one six-mark-four. Closing on attack vector."

"Battle stations!" Kate commanded. "Raise shields!"

"Shields up," Castle noted from his station. "Phasers and photon torpedo bays standing ready."

"Inform the Romulans we're on a rescue mission," Kate ordered

"Hailing frequencies jammed, Captain." Castle replied. "Romulan ships are powering weapons."

"Mr. Ryan," Kate snapped quickly, "get us out of here!"

"Course back to Federation space plotted," Ryan replied, "engaging."

"Romulan ships firing torpedoes!" Castle reported. "Three full spreads incoming."

"Evasive maneuvers," Kate barked, "pattern alpha"

Before Ryan could comply, the helm console exploded, sending Ryan sprawling dead to the floor.

"Engineering," Kate snapped into the intercom, "damage report."

"Main energizers hit Captain," the chief engineer reported, "port shield has buckled, we can't take another hit like that."

"Engage auxiliary power," Kate ordered. "Prepare to return fire."

The Romulan ships split up and began bracketing the crippled New York between the three of them with coordinated disruptor fire. Kate watched, horrified as one-by-one, her crew were killed at their stations.

"Shields collapsing captain," Castle reported.

Two more direct hits sent both Esposito at ops and Lanie on life support to their deaths.

"Fire phasers!" Kate commanded futilely

"No power to the weapons Captain," Castle replied, just before the tactical console exploded and he crumpled dead to the floor.

"Captain," the engineer reported, "we're dead in space…"

Three more plasma torpedoes slammed into New York's unshielded secondary hull cutting off the engineer's report as main engineering was opened to space.

"Computer, activate escape pods" Kate choked into the intercom. "Launch log buoy. All hands abandon ship. Repeat: all hands abandon ship."

Kate stared ahead dully as she sat in the center seat of her shattered command, memories of her tragic past swirling in her mind. She barely heard the clipped tones of the Academy Commandant.

"That will be sufficient. Arch."

The holodeck arch appeared where the main view screen had been moments before to reveal Admiral Saavik, who strode into the holodeck simulation of New York's shattered bridge as Kate struggled shakily out of the Captain's chair to stand at attention.

"When I was sitting in your place, Lieutenant, Admiral Kirk suggested prayer." Saavik noted. "What my father's people do to their prisoners does not bear repeating."

After a pregnant pause while the Rear Admiral Lower Half and the Lt. Junior grade regarded each other, Saavik turned and gave a sharp order.

"This exercise is concluded, trainees report to lecture hall two for debriefing."

The formerly "dead" bridge crew stood up from where they had fallen and began to file out past her, but Kate remained where she stood. Just behind Saavik's left shoulder, Castle stopped short of the holodeck arch and turned around, his eyes apologetic and almost imploring. When it became clear that Kate had no intention of leaving, Adm. Saavic turned back to regard the young woman.

"Lt. Beckett," she enquired, "do you intend to remain with the ship?"

"Permission to speak freely, Admiral," Kate replied as crisply as she could under the circumstances.

"Granted," Saavik replied

"I don't believe this is a fair test of my command ability," Kate stated coldly.

"And why not?" Saavik replied, the clipped tones of her speech and her stoic Vulcan discipline made it difficult for Kate to figure out whether she'd crossed a line or not.

"There was no way to save the ship... all of those people," Kate replied. "There was no way to win."

Though Kate could not discern anything from Saavik's outward expression, she recalled with absolute clarity feeling the same way after taking the Kobayashi Maru test and being on the other side of this conversation. She had stated nearly word for word the same objection and sympathized given what she'd learned recently about Lt. Beckett's past.

"A no-win scenario is the possibility every starship commander may face," Saavik replied, aware that she had parroted nearly word for word what James T. Kirk had said to her. "Has that possibility never occurred to you?"

"No Sir," Kate replied, still standing at attention.

"Admiral Kirk also told me that how we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life."

Saavik saw the conflict at work behind Lt. Beckett's eyes. She had witnessed firsthand when she was not much older than Beckett what it had taken for James Kirk to fully accept the truth of that maxim.

Shortly after Mr. Castle had taken the test, he'd been caught attempting to reproduce Kirk's solution in an attempt to allow Beckett to rescue Kobayashi Maru.

His attempt could have resulted in his expulsion from command school, but his willingness to _"fall on his sword"_ to coin a human phrase, in order to spare Lt Beckett from being implicated in his infraction had given her pause, which had led to a more detailed perusal of Kate Beckett's family history. Apparently, Johanna Beckett, Kate's mother, had been killed in a similar incident. His actions, though in violation of Starfleet Academy's code of conduct, had been a well-intentioned attempt to spare Lt. Beckett emotional trauma.

To that end, she had placed a reprimand in his academy record and given him a direct order to have no contact with Lt. Beckett until her own Kobayashi Maru exam then sent him home to visit his mother in New York to make sure he obeyed.

"Dismissed, Lt. Beckett. I believe you now have much to think about. I also believe that Mr. Castle may sprain something if he tries to keep up the facade that he isn't waiting for you. I am certain the two of you will have much to discuss now that he is free from my orders to avoid contact with you. I will begin the debriefing in exactly five minutes."

With that, Admiral Saavik turned smartly on her heel, eliciting a small squeak from Castle as she coolly raked her gaze over him before she departed the holodeck. Kate, however, was not yet inclined to cut him any slack. Orders or not, she was still a little angry at him.

"What is it, Castle?" she snapped.

"Is that all you have to say, Kate?" Castle replied, sheepishly trying to appear nonchalant. "What did you think of my performance? Mother always enjoyed a good death scene."

"I'm a Starfleet cadet," Kate shot back, "not a drama critic."

She walked past him, letting him squirm for another minute or two for standing her up and giving her the silent treatment all weekend. She turned back to see him standing where she'd left him, staring dejectedly down at the deck and her demeanor softened as she indicated the direction of the lecture hall.

"You coming, Castle?"

* * *

Though neither Castle nor Beckett noticed, Saavik had turned back to regard them from around the corner. She had spent her early childhood eking out a meager existence on an abandoned Romulan colony world where she and other Vulcan/Romulan half-breed children had been left to die, followed by several years being taught civilized Vulcan behavior by her teacher, Commander Spock. As such, even at her advanced age, she had only limited experience with human pair-bonding. She wondered how even she could see that they were meant for each other, while the two of them were somehow blind to it.

It simply wasn't logical.

As she turned back toward the Lecture hall to begin the debriefing, she hoped the two of them would figure it out before it was too late, because she was far too aware of how fleeting and transitory life could be. Though many looked upon her and saw only the pointed ears or the stoic demeanor of Vulcan discipline, she'd learned long ago the pain of having found – and lost – the one true love of her life and it still weighed heavily upon her.

Even after a hundred and fifty years, she still missed David Marcus terribly.

* * *

 _ ****Author's Note** Wrath of Khan will always be one of my favorite movies, if for no other reason than the introduction of the character of Lt. Saavik. I am basing her character here on the novelizations for Wrath of Khan and Search for Spock by Vonda N. MacIntyre as well as the novel "The Pandora Principle" by Carolyn Clowes.**_


	3. Pirate Attack (Buck Rogers universe)

**Pirate Attack**  
(Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Universe)

* * *

 _In the late 20_ _th_ _Century, NASA launched the last of America's deep space probes. Aboard this compact starship, a lone astronaut, Captain Richard "Buck" Rodgers, was to experience cosmic forces beyond all comprehension. In a freak mishap, his life-support systems were frozen by temperatures beyond imagination._ _Ranger 3_ _was blown out of its planned trajectory into an orbit one thousand times more vast, an orbit which was to return its pilot to Earth, 500 years later._

* * *

In the early dawn an entire squadron of Earth Defense Directorate starfighters thundered out of earth orbit and passed through the star gate to pass beyond Earth's defense shield. Captain Richard Castle of the centuries defunct United States Air Force chafed a little in the nearly skin tight white flight suit. Though the controls were not terribly different from Ranger Three or the F-15s he'd flown before, the flight suit was much tighter than he was accustomed to.

He'd endured more than a few wisecracks about the "primitive" flying one of their most state of the art ships and had not only picked up the flight controls rapidly, but almost for spite had smoked nearly all of them in the simulator when Beckett wasn't looking. The state of their ACM skills was almost appalling.

"Stay close to my wing, Castle," Colonel Kate Becket noted over the comm channel. "We'll keep maneuvers nice and simple: Stay on autoflight: You won't be expected to run anything but the throttle."

"Thanks, Colonel, Beckett," Castle replied glad she couldn't see him roll his eyes at the absurdity of her statement. "I've been in a cell for nearly a week, would it be okay if I occasionally look out the window to take in the scenery, hmm?"

"This is no time for levity, Castle," Kate replied tersely at his sarcastic remark. "We've lost nearly a third of our supply ships in this sector to pirates, when they hit, they hit fast. You can't out-fly the computer, it'll take any necessary evasive action to avoid their fire."

"I appreciate your concern, Beckett," Castle replied with a snort, "Just wish I'd brought along something to read."

After half an hour of relative silence, during which Castle ignored most of the comm chatter between Kate and her pilots, while occasionally running his fingers longingly over the manual override with nearly childish spite, but left it alone.

"I make a target on the long range scanner vector four zero one," Kate noted, which drew Castle's attention. As much as her smug superior attitude annoyed him, he found her voice nearly hypnotic.

"Affirmative, Colonel," Lt Wrather who had given him his crash course on his fighter noted, "I have a visual on your target just to port."

"If you have visual at this distance," Kate noted, almost shocked when she turned her head to look for herself, "it must be gigantic"

Even Castle was drawn in awe as he took in the massive bulk of the Draconian war cruiser. Though he was certain he been aboard her before. He'd only gotten a brief glimpse of the massive vessel himself, but that was shrouded in a drug induced haze from whatever they'd given him after they'd thawed him out. The closer the squadron came to the Draconia, the deeper Castle's sense of dread became.

* * *

"Welcome aboard the Imperial Flagship Draconia." William Bracken stated imperiously, as Meredith swept past him to enter the landing bay "Envoy of Draco, Conqueror of space, Warlord of Astria, ruler of the Draconian realm. I give you his daughter, the Crown Princess Meredith."

"Delighted." Meredith greeted first Becket then swept her eyes over Castle, unable to disguise her obvious recognition, "This is an unexpected pleasure, we are hardly prepared to greet you properly."

"I consider your time adequate greeting," Kate replied, doing her best to mask her irritation that Meredith kept staring at Castle, "Colonel Kate Beckett, Commander of the Third Force of the Earth Defense Directorate. I believe you already know Captain Castle."

"But, no," Meredith demurred, though in that outfit the word barely applied if Beckett was any judge. "If I'd met such a dashing captain, I'm sure I would have remembered vividly: I don't believe we've had the pleasure"

"I think you're mistaken, Princess," Castle quipped, turning on the charm, "I never forget a knuckle."

"Castle," Kate hissed, her eyes burning with something she refused to admit was jealousy

"Kate, we're here to get to the bottom of things," Castle stage whispered back before stepping closer to Meredith. "Would you like me to describe some of your inner chambers?"

"To what inner chambers does he refer?" Meredith replied, but her skin (and she had a lot of skin showing) flushed which belied her denials.

"Your highness may not find me all that memorable, but I'll never forget her" Castle added in a charming tone that clearly infuriated Beckett, "I especially like the low cut number with the high-neck collar…"

"Colonel, what is this all about?" Bracken interrupted, "Why are you here?"

"Pirate forces are at their worst in this sector," Beckett replied, aware she had Bracken's full attention, unlike the Princess, only she was a much better at covering her true intentions. "We brought our ships to assure your safe arrival."

"Alert! Alert! Alert!" a voice boomed over the ship's PA system. "Draconia under attack by hostile ships"

"And Captain Castle…" Beckett began, only to be interrupted by the alarm klaxon,

"All personnel to your defense posts!"

"Pilots, to your ships!" Beckett commanded and the pilots broke from their parade formation and scrambled to their fighters… Castle followed, his half-hearted seduction of the princess all but forgotten.

"Alert all stations! Secure the ship!" Bracken commanded, before tugging Beckett around by her elbow to glare at her, "So this is how you bid us safe conduct. A fine escort, at least we will all perish together."

"Clear all launch channels for attack!" The PA system blared as Castle strapped himself in and put on his helmet before the cockpit slid closed. "Alert! Alert! Stand ready to launch Defense Directorate Starfighters."

* * *

No sooner had all of the starfighters burst from Draconia's launch cradles, than things began to go badly for them.

"Look out, Major: He's on your tail," Castle warned Beckett's second in command as the crank winged pirate fighters rolled in on him. "Break right, I'll cut him off."

Major Krennic rolled left instead, completely ignoring his warning, letting his fighter's computer do the flying.

"No, not that way," Castle pleaded, "You're turning right into his power!"

But his warning went unheeded, when seconds later Major Krennic's fighter exploded with a blinding flash.

"Castle," Kate snapped at him, "I ordered you to stay out of this…"

"Colonel, you need all the help you can get!" Castle interrupted, but his attention shifted to Lt. Wrather, who'd been appointed to fly his wing as the flight of three pirate fighters lined up on her.

"Wingman," Castle called out to warn her, "bandit, twelve o'clock high!"

Twelve O'clock… what?" Wrather questioned, confused. Castle still forgot that he was five hundred years behind the times in his slang.

"Lieutenant Wrather, disregard." Kate ordered, "Castle, get off the air, our combat computers are way ahead of you!"

"Sure, Colonel," Castle shot back his eye once again drawn to the manual override. "But if your computers don't do something pretty fast, Wrather will be…"

When Wrather's fighter exploded, Castle closed his eyes for just a moment. Wrather had been patient and as kind as could be expected, considering he was suspected of treason. She'd deserved better.

"Colonel, we've got to go to manual flight." He stated flatly.

"Richard Castle," Kate snapped, "if you don't stop distracting my pilots."

"You just ask your wingman, Beckett," Castle shot back, "there's a couple of pirates on your tail.

"I'm ordering you back to base!" Kate commanded, even as her fighter began its programmed evasive maneuvers. From Castle's perspective it was clear that the pirate leader was playing with her, given the dispatch with which the other pirates had decimated the rest of the squadron.

"I'm switching to manual," Castle stated, unable to just sit there and watch any longer. "See if I can start dishing out a little of what we've been taking."

Castle didn't wait for a reply as he flipped the switch and took direct control of his starfighter.

"Now then," Castle muttered darkly, "let's see how you like a little old-fashioned red dogging"

Castle rolled out to evade the pirate on his tail, flipping his starfigter end over end in a tumbling S turn, that the pirate had not been prepared for. By the time he'd recovered, Castle was on his six. The targeting computer beeped, then wailed its high pitched lock on tone. Castle didn't hesitate and the four linked laser cannons barked.

"One down, six to go." Castle called out as he rolled in on the pirate's wingman, who fared no better, after a brief turning fight and found himself under Castle's guns.

"Gotcha!" He bellowed triumphantly, fangs metaphorically out… until he spied Kate's current predicament. The pirate leader and his flight of three had her boxed in and it was only a matter of time before they closed the noose and nailed the coffin shut.

"Beckett," Castle commanded, a tone she had never heard him use before, "switch to manual, break right, then adjust course zero and minus ninety and hit your retros!"

"I can't!" Kate shouted back, even as she was doing it, diving toward the Draconia and out of the pirate leader's fire "It's against all principles of modern space combat!"

Though Kate didn't know it, he had walked her through the beginnings of the Thach Weave, the two fighters darted back and forth along each other's flight path. A tactic none of the pirates were prepared for, which Castle quickly began to use to his advantage. Each time one of the enemy ships turned their fire on Beckett he rolled in and blasted it with precision fire. Each time they massed to attack him, Kate eliminated them. Between the two of them, they whittled the pirates down to the flight leader and his wingmen.

When the enemy leader lost his cool and dove on them both when their paths intersectred, his flight of two trailing behind, Castle smartly side-slipped them, flipped his fighter end over end and strafed along their line, blasting the last three fighters out of the stars.

"That was for Wrather, you son of a bitch." Castle muttered just before Kate's starfighter settled in on his wing.

"Look, Castle," Kate mumbled, struggling to find the right words. "I don't know what went wrong with our combat computers… but…thank you. Now, Captain, let's go home"

"My place or yours?" Castle quipped, unable to help himself. In the scant few days he'd known her, needling her had become far too much fun.

"What?" Kate sputtered. "What did you say?"

"Just joking." Castle replied sheepishly, again glad she couldn't see his face.

* * *

A short time later, as their two starfighters sat in the largely empty landing bay. A stark, silent contrast to the busy place filled with pilots they'd departed from. Castle and Beckett waited as his guards came to return him to his cell. Castle didn't know it yet, but Kate had made arrangements for her father to take over the appeal of his case. Though Kate had had serious doubts about him when they first met, she couldn't fathom a traitor would put his own life on the line to save hers.

"Well, guess this is it," she muttered as the guards approached, though at a wave of her hand, they paused and gave her a moment.

"It doesn't have to be," Castle replied, "We could, uh, go to dinner. Debrief each other."

"Why, Castle?" Kate offered coyly, "So I can be one of your conquests?"

"I could be one of yours." Castle quipped, noting the flush that crept up Kate's neck.

"Thank you for your help, Castle." she husked, "I appreciate you having my back out there."

"Too bad," Castle added as the guards applied the cuffs to take him to his cell. He didn't know it yet but he wouldn't be there long. "It would've been great."

Kate drew her lip between her teeth for a moment, but couldn't help herself as she leaned in to whisper in his ear.

"You have no idea."

* * *

 _ ****Author's note** Though my first youthful celebrity crush was Maren Jensen as "Athena" on the 1978 BSG, my second was Erin Gray as "Wilma Deering" so this was a natural idea for a vignette.**_

 _ **The Thach Weave is an aerial combat tactical formation maneuver developed by naval aviator John S. Thach of the United States Navy soon after the United States' entry into World War II in which two or more allied planes would weave in regularly intersecting flight paths to lure an enemy into focusing on one plane, while the targeted pilot's wingman would come into position to attack the pursuer.**_


	4. Descent (DC Comics Universe)

**Descent**

* * *

 _Behind these eyes a demon sleeps  
A monster of my own creation,  
Within my mind's dark caverns creeps  
Needing but a moment's fury to awaken._

 _I lock it away within myself,  
In those dark caverns it knows so well.  
Bind it down in its dark larder  
Locked in chains of purest will._

 _I walk the world with innocent face,  
Never showing the conflict behind my guise.  
Ever fearing what might come to pass,  
Should anything wake the demon  
Behind these eyes._

* * *

Castle's mind flashed with memories both recent and long ago, many concrete and some shrouded in a dream like haze he had no firm frame of reference for.

 _Kate being shot at Motgomery's funeral in front of his eyes_

 _An SUV running him off the road_

 _Setting up a video camera_

 _Screams_

 _Fire_

 _blinding rage_

 _Maniacal laughter_

 _Gunshots_

 _The bullet from Caleb Brown's gun punching through his chest._

 _Kate dragging her broken body to his side as she was bleeding out._

 _Silence_

* * *

Castle startled awake to the sound of a heart monitor, his lips parted in a silent scream. His head snapped upward from the side of Kate's bed dragging him sluggishly back to the present. Though he could clearly remember the bullet from Caleb Brown's gun hitting him in the chest which had sent him sprawling, not even the ER doctors could fathom how he had so quickly recovered once the bullet had been removed.

The memory sent his hand to the center of his chest where the bullet had struck him which should have shredded his heart, but the skin under his loose fitting shirt was as smooth as it had been before. There wasn't even a hint of a scar. It had baffled everyone.

Kate, however had not been so fortunate.

She had taken down Caleb Brown - for real this time - but had taken two bullets in the exchange of fire with Brown: one in the shoulder and the other in the abdomen. She had lost so much blood that the doctors had induced a coma to allow her body to repair itself. He gently brushed a lock of hair away from Kate's face, but his guilt-ridden reflection was interrupted by a television that he faintly recalled he'd left on for noise before he'd fallen asleep.

" _Breaking news on the NYPD raid on a Federal headquarters building. The prime suspect in the kidnapping of famed author Richard Castle, known only as Mason Wood, disappeared from Federal custody early this morning his whereabouts are currently unknown..."_

Castle's interrogation by Mason Wood after his man Flynn had drugged him flooded back.

* * *

" _Who knows about me?"_ Wood had asked him in his gruff, grandfatherly tone as he'd gone through the list of everyone he loved. He'd fought so hard, ground his teeth and struggled., tears pouring down his cheeks, but could not fight the compulsion to answer. He knew now that Kate, Alexis, his mother, nor anyone else he cared about would ever be safe so long as Mason Wood lived.

Castle rose from his seat at Kate's bedside, brushed a lingering kiss to Kate's pale forehead before he turned and left the private hospital room. Something needed to be done. He knew that now. The truth serum had shaken something loose from the empty chasm that had been his two missing months from the year before. Flashes mostly. Images he'd thought could only have come from the dark imaginings of Stephen King or H.R. Giger.

As he walked out of the hospital into the darkening night a line of verse wafted up from the disconnected flashes of his tortured memory. Words he barely realized he was speaking aloud.

" _Change! Change! O' form of man!  
Free the prince forever damned!  
Free the might from fleshy mire!  
Boil the blood in the heart for fire!  
Gone! Gone! O form of man  
And rise the demon Etrigan!"_

Naught but a black alley cat bore witness as the very air around Richard Castle shimmered and shifted until a much larger, barely humanoid yellow skinned creature with, horns, red eyes, and pointed, webbed ears replaced him. The cat arched her back, hissed and spat before she bounded from her perch atop a dumpster and fled as the demon bellowed into the night.

"Mortals are so weak-willed," Etrigan muttered to himself. He was unable to fathom how the humans of the modern world could simply block out that which they were unwilling – or unable – to accept.

The one named Mason Wood and his minions thought that they could control him by binding him to the mortal, Richard Castle. They thought he would submit.

They had thought wrong.

Clearly men who no longer believed in demons or magic were woefully inept at the spells necessary to bind him to their will. He'd torn the fools apart that very night, laughing with maniacal glee, shown them the utter foolishness of their mistake. He had only relented his place in the mortal plane back to Richard Castle when his rage was spent. But he had always been lurking in the periphery of Castle's mind, stalking the dark recesses of Castle's subconscious waiting for the moment when he would be called upon to break free.

Now he had, Castle had called him forth from purgatory willingly. Though he was not fond of the soft writer with whom he was now forced to share existence on this plane, he would acquiesce to the final plea that had accompanied the utterance of the spell that had summoned him.

Etrigan would hunt this Mason Wood with extreme prejudice. He thought he was the hunter, but now he and all of his minions would be the prey. Etrigan, son of the demon Belial would not be reasoned with, would not be bargained with and he simply would not be stopped until they were all dead.

* * *

 _ **** Author's Note** Etrigan the Demon is a comic book superhero/antihero created by Jack Kirby for DC Comics, originally inspired by the comic strip "Prince Valiant" in which the eponymous character dressed as a demon. Kirby gave his creation the same appearance as Valiant's mask.**_

 _ **Etrigan is a demon from Hell whom, despite his violent tendencies, usually found himself fighting for the forces of good, due to the alliance between the heroic characters of the DC Universe and Jason Blood a Gotham City Police Dept. consultant on matters of the occult and former Knight Errant of the Arthurian round table to whom Etrigan was bound by his half-brother Merlin the Magician.**_

 _ **His Gotham PD connection lead to numerous team-ups with Batman.**_

 _ **Yes, my love of obscure fiction knows no bounds.**_


	5. In Valen's Name (Babylon 5 universe)

_**In Valen's Name  
(Babylon 5 universe)**_ _  
_

* * *

 _"The year is 2260, the place, is Babylon 5"_  
Babylon 5 season three opening.

* * *

Richard Castle had been standing in the doorway watching his daughter sleeping for nearly half an hour while he waited for his contact to tell him his quarry was on the move. His mother and daughter had been off planet when President Clarke had assumed dictatorial control of Earth. He didn't know how Kate had found them and routed their passenger ship to Babylon 5 but he would always be grateful.

Joining the Anla-shok had not been an easy choice. Since mustering out of Earthforce after the end of the Earth/Minbari War, he'd had a mostly happy, easy life as an author and a father, but when the shadows returned he felt it was his duty to do something. The encroaching darkness threatened everyone, and he could not simply turn his back.

Neroon, a leader of the Minbari warrior caste disputed the elevation of Ambassador Delenn to the title of Entil'Zha and swore to prevent her from being sworn in by any means necessary, up to and including taking her life. Her assistant Lennier had asked him to stall Neroon, if a Minbari opposed him it would create as much turmoil among the Minbari people than if the warrior succeeded. Lennier had warned him not to engage Neroon directlty, but he wasn't certain there was any other way.

The beeping of his message board let him know that Neroon was on the move. With a quiet sigh he slipped noiselessly to Alexis' bed, placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and slipped from the room, not knowing if he would ever see her again.

* * *

Minbari War Leader Neroon, moved with quiet dignity through Brown Sector's maintenance corridors that would take him to the Embassy level. Though in ten thousand years, no Minbari had ever killed another, he felt his cause was just. He was fully convinced that Delenn was a dangerous religious zealot that must not be given power over the Anla-shok and that it was his sworn duty to stop her even if it meant his own life... and hers. Halfway down the dark maintenance tunnel, a human stood, blocking his path.

"So," Castle quipped, "you must be Neroon,"

"You shouldn't get involved in matters that do not concern you," Neroon stated evenly. "My quarrel is with Delenn."

"Then your quarrel _is_ with me," Castle replied, slipping the collapsible Minbari fighting pike out of his pocket and thumbed the catch that extended it into a three meter long fighting staff.

"Do you have any idea who I am?" Neroon stated haughtily.

"I do. The only way you will get to Delenn is through me," Castle replied, tipping the raised end of his pike in salute. "I invoke Denn-Shar."

"To the death," Neroon noted sternly before activating his own fighting pike and returning the salute before the two combatants stepped back and began to circle each other warily. "During the war, I killed fifty thousand of your kind, what's one more?"

Neroon attacked, and the small service corridor echoed with the sound of their fighting pikes ringing against one another. Castle deftly turned back every swing of Neroon's pike.

"Not bad… for a beginner," Neroon offered respectfully as they circled one another again. "This is your last chance to walk away, I was taught the pike by Derhan himself."

"Oh, really?" Castle replied with a crooked grin. "So was I!"

Without telegraphing his intentions, Castle attacked. His spinning pike hammered at Neroon's, forcing the Minbari back with the sheer ferocity of repeated blows.

"You're a fool," Neroon hissed at him, a hint of resignation in his tone, "but if this is what you wish, then Denn-Shar it shall be. To the death!"

With renewed intent, the two warriors struck at each other. Four times, Castle had been knocked down hard, each time he'd struggled back to his feet and came on again. Though he'd managed to strike Neroon a few times, he was battered, bruised, bleeding and... he was losing.

He had studied the pike for barely two years since Commander Sinclair's call for volunteers, and his comparative lack of experience was beginning to show. His blood coating the ends of Neroon's pike a testimony to how one sided the fight truly was. Though he stood his ground, fought hard and bravely, he knew he was outclassed and could not stand against the more experienced Minbari warrior for much longer.

"This is a foolish waste of material," Neroon stated evenly in his gravelly tone as they circled warily again. "You are not Minbari, step aside and I will pretend that you ran away, changed your mind. No one will know."

"I am a Ranger!" Castle shot back angrily as he rallied yet again. His pike increasingly leaden in his hands, each successively clumsy strike efficiently batted aside. "We walk in the dark places no one will enter! We stand on the bridge and no one may pass! We live for the one… we _**DIE**_ for the one!"

Castle came on again, but Neroon cut him off, striking across Castle's forearms to disarm him. then into Castle's waist doubling him over. Before Castle could recover, Neroon swept his pike down across his solar plexus sending him face first into the deck.

"Why all of this?" Neroon asked incredulously, circling Castle as he fought to breathe. "Pride? Duty? You've been trained well, but you must have known you couldn't win, so why do it?"

"For her," Castle gasped.

Though his ribs were cracked and his breathing came in short, ragged gasps, he scrabbled for his pike and used it to lever himself painfully to his knees. "We live… for the one. We… die, for the one... Entil'Zha Satim... in... Valen's name."

Neroon's pike lashed out again and Richard Castle saw only shadows.

* * *

The ceremony to install Delenn as the leader of the Anla-shok was beginning to wind down. An officiant of the Religious caste had been reciting for the better part of an hour, which had Commander Kate Beckett nervously shuffling her feet. Diplomacy was not exactly her strong suit, she had come up through the fighter corps and preferred action to longwinded speeches.

"As it was done long ago, so now we name she who will lead us. Among the Rangers let her be known as Entil..."

There was a commotion at the door followed by the gathered dignitaries parting to admit Neroon, who slowly marched in lockstep toward Delenn, stopping just short of her before he tugged the hood of his cloak from his crested head to reveal the bruises from his recent (mostly one-sided) battle.

"Is this part of the ceremony?" Captain Sheridan asked Kate, who seemed just as dumbfounded as he was.

"I don't know," Kate replied with a shrug.

Neroon slid his cloak aside to reveal the blood covered pike in his hand, which he raised just high enough for all to see. Delenn and Kate gasped almost in unison at the sight of it. Kate's hand drifted to her holstered PPG, but Sheridan stayed her with glance.

Neroon tossed his pike onto the floor and it slid to Delenn's feet.

"There is now _blood_ between us," Neroon stated, looking directly into Delenn's eyes. "There is now blood between the Warrior Caste and the humans. I do not believe they would die for me, but they would die for you... _Entil'Zha_."

Without another word, Neroon turned on his heel and marched out of the room.

"Castle," Kate whispered, and did not wait to be excused before she fled. She did not have to search very far to find him. Neroon had left him propped up next to the hatchway.

"Castle!" she sobbed, abandoning her pursuit of Neroon to kneel next to him. "Rick, can you hear me?"

She brushed her hand gently over his head before sliding him to the deck, his head cradled between her knees, barely noticing Captain Sheridan as he skidded to a stop next to her and activated the comm-link affixed to the back of his fist.

"Medlab this is Captain Sheridan, medical emergency at the Minbari Embassy..."

* * *

Though Kate had wanted to continue the pursuit of Neroon once she was certain that Rick's injuries were not fatal, her request had been denied. Apparently as a high ranking member of the Minbari Warrior Caste he had diplomatic immunity. Kate spent the rest of the night both fuming that his assailant would walk and worrying over the man she loved as he lay quietly in an induced coma.

Delenn had sat with Alexis for most of the evening whispering comfort quietly to Castle's daughter. Though the Minbari Ambassador did her best to hide it, Kate could read the guilt rolling off of her clear as day. She seemed appalled with the price that could be exacted in her name with her knew position.

Martha had been able to convince Alexis to go back to their quarters not long afterward, which had prompted Delenn to gracefully make her own exit, only to hover just outside the recovery room. Kate idly watched as her aide Lennier did his best to give support to her, before Kate switched her attention back to Castle. A moment later, the door slid open to admit the last person she'd ever want to see again, Neroon.

"You come to finish what you started?" Kate challenged rising stiffly, her hand snapping down to her holstered PPG.

"If I had wished him dead," Neroon replied gravely, "he would be dead."

"Then why did you stop short?" Lennier asked from the doorway.

"That is between the two of us," Neroon replied before turning back to Kate. "I would speak to him alone, one warrior to another, then I will go."

"He probably won't hear you," Kate replied brusquely.

"Then I will speak briefly," Neroon added respectfully before Lennier escorted her toward the door to Delenn's whispered assurances Neroon was Warrior Caste and a being of his word.

"Denn-Shar, you said," Neroon whispered as he stood over Castle's still form on the bed, slipping the folded fighting pike under his hand and closing his fingers around it. "To the death, and death there was, my own."

Neroon paused briefly to gather his thoughts, ignoring the death glare Kate leveled at the back of his head. Had looks been granted the power to kill, he would have been reduced to a pile of ashes on the deck.

"To see a human invoke the name of Valen," he continued respectfully, "and be willing to die for one of my kind when I was intent upon killing one of my own, the rightness of my cause disappeared."

Neroon had to stop again and compose himself, his whole belief system had been turned on its head and he was still reeling from it.

"That a human in his last moments should be more of a Minbari than I..." he continued "Perhaps it is true what Delenn said, that we are not of the same blood, but we are of the same heart."

If Neroon was startled when Castle's hand gripped his arm, he did not show it.

"The next time," Castle whispered sleepily, "you need a revelation, could you possibly... find a way that isn't quite so... uncomfortable?"

The last thing anyone out in the waiting room expected to hear was Neroon's laughter. After he'd composed himself, he walked out of the recovery room, paid his respects to Kate and Delenn and disappeared down the corridor.

Kate slipped into a chair next to Castle's bed and took his hand, her other one idly brushing a lock of hair from his forehead.

"Hey," Castle whispered, closing his eyes for a moment to savor the touch of Kate's hand.

"Hey," Kate whispered back, her smile genuine, though her eyes were tinged with worry.

"Next time I say I'm dying to see you," Castle whispered his eyes heavy from the _"good"_ drugs, "let's keep it metaphoric"

"Deal," Kate replied, "but babe, don't ever do this to me again."

He hummed softly something that sounded like _"love you,"_ settled into this bed and drifted back to sleep.

* * *

 _ ****Author's Note** I dig Babylon 5 in the worst way. Though many might think the the Role of Marcus Cole would better fit Kate Beckett, I thought the character's attitude was more Castleesque.**_


End file.
